I’m as cynical as the next guy when it comes to Valentines day in the Arab world, but this may be going a tad too far, no? It’s funny in a sad way.
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s religious police have banned red roses ahead of Valentine’s Day, forcing couples in the conservative Muslim nation to think of new ways to show their love.
The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has ordered florists and gift shop owners in the capital Riyadh to remove any items colored scarlet, which is widely seen as symbolizing love, newspapers said.
“They visited us last night,” the Saudi Gazette quoted an unidentified florist as saying. [source]
The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice
!!!
{sigh}
are those scum bags nuts! do they think because we are muslims we should be wearing black all our life so we wont disgrace islam! if what we need in this world is love!
the Kuwaiti government is considering a ban on Valentine’s day as well. Rediculous stupid radicals. And they wonder why islam is thought badly of in the west!
Even though I find it silly to celebrate this day, I find those religious police much much sillier for spending time thinking of these things..
We really have to stop looking at Saudi Arabia as a religion country, what they are doing is not islam its just a lesson of how to be less free (or more animal) ..
If we just stop focusing on the little insignificant things and pay more attention to things that really matter…
Wow, KSA is doing such a bang-up job of promoting virtue and preventing vice.
But dude the last time I heard, they were moderate states(Bush told me).
Hmmm, will our “parliment” follow their lead? You know it is something to distract people from what is really going on…We will wait and see..
“No red roses for Saudi sweethearts”… see Nas, i get it. This is R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S!!!! (i don’t know how to highlight words here)
But it ALSO looks like “REUTERS” and “The Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” COMPLETELY, and I repeat COMPLETELY forgot that engaged and married couples also might want to exchange red roses? LOOOOOL
not that I am in any means against any type of couples (single lovers, engaged, married, or even friends) exchanging red roses, but presenting it as something that single couples exclusively do or are interested in by both Reuters and the Saudi commission for…etc just caught my attention, and also CRACKED ME UP.
Then the REUTERS article, and as I expected, starts mentioning the bunch of UNRELATED issues, “Saudi Arabia imposes an austere form of Sunni Islam which prevents unrelated men and women from mixing, bans women from driving and demands that women wear a headscarf and a cloak.”——> Got it a******* Reuters, GOT IT! sigh.. yeah, i bet Reuters is highly concerned with Saudi lovers!
They shoulda banned pink. It’s an even more annoying colour.
off topic: all the red around looks really vulgar… just go to safeway 7th circle to see what I mean
I think they’d be doing the world a favor if they banned those stuffed animals with the goofy hearts that say “I love you” instead. But I suppose banning red roses is a step in the right direction– maybe next year 😉
let go people … its a hopeless case
This dictatorship represented by the Saudi Family ,and supported by the continuous American support is one of the major problem the Arab world is facing, I would not shed one tear when I see the Saudi regime is gone from the face of this earth,where is Graig when you need him so we can read his pearl of “wisdom” on the support of his fascist cabal for the Saudi Family in the white house who would not utter one word of criticism of the Wahhabi and Saudi criminal system that would do anything and everything to satisfy the appetite of the American Empire.
They do this every year …3adiii
It IS going too far … They should really think about the following: Too much tightening loosens things up 🙂
The Saudi vice police should take my art history class and learn that red was considered a sacred color in the ancient world: the Egyptians used red ink for their sacred writing, The Book of the Dead, the medical books, their religious poetry. It became a symbol of healing through the ages that today appears in the Red Cross and Red Crescent. It is a healing color for many diseases, that increases the metabolism and speeds healing. Studies in Japan showed that red iodine works faster after surgery and prevents infection better than blue iodine. Red helps heal depression – thus the Saudis continue to keep their people oppressed and depressed.
i like the way they have things
u should be free to wear whatever you want to do.